Food Cravings? Connections between “mood & food”!

Boy, if there’s one thing we have an ongoing battle with here in this country, it is the battle of the bulge. Mid level area, the belly, sometimes we kind of nicely refer to it as the Dunlop disease, where your belly Donlopped over your belt line. Anyhow, that’s that abdominal fat that is gaining on us here in the United States. It’s an unfortunate thing. One of the things that drives this, is the connection, that we’ve talked about here on Good News Naturally, many, many times, between mood and food. Researchers now link an herb, known as ashwagandha, say that fast three times in a row, ashwagandha to fewer food cravings.

We already know that this herb ashwagandha, which is from a family of natural medicines known as Ayurvedic medicines out of India, is known for stress support. They did a study, research that was published in the Journal of Evidence Based Complimentary and Alternative Medicine. There was a group of fifty-two overweight, but healthy individuals, between the ages of eighteen and sixty. They took ashwagandha, 300 mg, or a placebo, twice daily for two months.

During this time, there was questionnaires used, they recorded stress levels, happiness and diet, and they also did blood work during this time. Researchers found that the herb improved happiness, reduced their stress, and this was measured by questionnaire. Also, responses were seen in lower cortisol levels. Food cravings were reduced in individuals, and they were less likely to turn to food to cope with stress. That’s one of the main points in this article, is that when we get under stress, a lot of times we want some comfort food.

This herb ashwagandha, again has been shown for lots of different things. We already know it’s very good for adrenal health, and good for energy, stamina, mental alertness during the day. Have more and more people coming in and asking about ashwagandha, have it written down on a piece of paper. I’m encouraged by that, that people are paying attention to some of the research that is out there. Let’s kind of walk through this whole thing about food cravings, and stress, and things of that nature. Obviously I got some things I want to expound on here, besides just looking at … I’m not a magic bullet guy, if you haven’t figured that out yet. I’m not a magic bullet guy. In other words, you walk into Paradise and go, “Hey, I got all this stress going on. I’m not sleeping, and I’m craving foods, and eating too much because of it.” I’m not just going to tell you ashwagandha, have a nice day, and go out the door. There’s more to this.

The number one thing that we all have to understand about combating stress in our lives is this. Number one thing, top of the list, we must get a good nights sleep. I learned that from one of the world’s experts on chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia. The number one thing he told me, many, many years ago, “Tom, if you can get these people sleeping better at night. Get them into a rhythm of relaxation, and getting into a good sleep, where they’re getting seven, eight, even up to nine hours of sleep every night, that will conquer the majority of their stress issues, and their fatigue issues that are associated with so many problems that people are dealing with these days.”

Right at the top of the list, if you’re not getting a good night’s sleep, you need to give us a call, and let us help you with that. Number two, is that we need to make sure that we have a good nutritional foundation in place. In other words, if you’re missing a lot of nutrients out of your diet, and the majority of Americans are. We already know over eighty percent of Americans are deficient in magnesium, a high level are also deficient in potassium, and the list goes on, and on, and on. We’ve got to make sure that we have the foundation in place for all of these things to work well. We need a good high potency multi-vitamin. We need minerals in place. As I mentioned, magnesium, potassium, calcium, zinc, selenium. These all play a role in how the body functions in general.

I’m a big believer in omega 3 fatty acids from fish oil. When you have stress in your life, and we all deal with it, one of the things that your adrenals burn up, and your body burns up, your central nervous system burns up basically, is B vitamins. B1, B2, B3, B5, which is pantothentic acid, the list goes on. I’m an advocate for taking B complex every day. I like using Solaray’s B complex 75, for this reason. Number one, it’s a good high potency dose, and it has a two stage to it. It will release quickly in the first stage. The second stage is with you, over about a six to eight hour period of time.

I like recommending that you take the B complex 75 from Solaray at lunch time. That’s what I do myself. Keep a bottle at work, get some little zip locks if you need to. Put them in your pocket, or your purse, so that you have them during the day time when you’re out and around, or you’re at work. Those two things, getting the sleep, making sure the foundation in place, and making sure that you’ve got plenty of B vitamins on board for these stressful situations.

Lastly, this is where the ashwagandha comes in at. This is where we nourish the adrenals, because that’s where ashwagandha works is in adrenals. You’ll find this specific form of ashwagandha they used is called KSM 66. You’ll find it at TheVitaminStore.com, in a product called Adaptra, Adaptra. It contains the KSM 66 form of ashwagandha that they used in this study, so you can ask for it when you come in. If you decide to add that, as you’re walking through this process, then again, you take this mid day, and you can take it with the B complex, say after lunch time, I think is a really … That’s when I take mine, shortly after lunch time, because that’s typically when we really need the help to get us through the second half of the day.

The other thing is, just so you know this folks, that when you nourish the adrenals properly mid day, the other thing that you’re doing is, you’re setting yourself up for a better night’s sleep that night, because your body has endured the stress much better, because it’s fully got all the nutrients on board that it needs, and full of fuel if you will, so that you’re not burning yourself out. That’s what happens is that people get to the end of the day, they’re wiped out exhausted. They may doze off, but then they wake up and they can’t get back to sleep. Sound familiar? Sure it does. I know, because I’ve been there.

These are the things that you have to adjust and do, and back up and take a look at, and figure out what to do. If you don’t this is an open doorway that people end up on these idiotic drugs to help them get through the day. They’re typically anti-anxiety medicines to get them through the day. It’s just nonsense. We have to address the underlying needs nutritionally of the body before we start venturing into these pharmaceutical drugs, and all their mind altering characteristics and side effects that go with them. You don’t have a shortage of these drugs, trust me. You got a shortage of nutrients, because every American walking this earth right now, has a shortage of nutrients in their body.

You are not going to ever get it completely out of your diet. I don’t care what dietitian, or what nutritionist, or what doctor, or who’s on TV, or who has wrote this book, or who has been on this radio program, you are not going to get all the nutrients out of your food on a daily basis. It’s not going to happen. Our agriculture system has depleted a bunch of these nutrients out, and even when you’re on your best behavior, you’re not going to get there.

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